Australian newspapers hailed Phil Hughes as possibly the most exciting batsman in a decade on Tuesday after the 20-year-old became the youngest player in history to hit two centuries in a single Test.
Hughes’s feat against South Africa on a treacherous Durban wicket was a boost for an Australian team rebuilding after the retirement of greats such as Shane Warne, Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden, commentators said.
”Boy from the backblocks revives a team’s spirits,” the Melbourne Age said on its front page, while the Australian praised his ”Zen-like” ability to remain unfazed in the face of a ferocious Proteas attack.
”Some of the great names of Australian cricket, players such as Don Bradman, (Doug) Walters, Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting, keep echoing around Hughes as the cricketing world struggles for a point of reference to define perhaps the most illustrious batting prodigy in a decade,” the Age said.
Sydney’s Daily Telegraph said comparisons with Bradman, the kiss of death for many a promising batman, were premature but declared him ”on track” to cement his place in the Australian line-up.
‘A mind like steel’
Former Test opener Justin Langer was impressed at the way Hughes bounced back from a fourth-ball duck on debut in the first Test, saying the prodigy had ”a mind like steel.”
”He just kept grinning at them — he’s like a little smiling assassin,” Langer told the Age.
”He’s under pressure on and off the field and now he’s peeled off two hundreds: it’s just extraordinary. I can’t remember being this pumped for a young player ever.”
Former Bradman teammate Arthur Morris said Hughes had transferred his early promise for New South Wales into the Test arena.
”I’m sure Phillip Hughes will make his name as one of the great players for Australia,” Morris told the Telegraph.
”His batting has been extraordinary because he has been facing a pretty good bowling attack. I thought he was a great player in the making and now he’s finally arrived.”
Another Test legend, Doug Walters, said the old enemy England would be watching the young batsman with the unorthodox style closely ahead of this year’s Ashes after he proved himself on the tricky Durban track.
”I don’t think he’ll get any worse ones,” he told the Age. ”I don’t see why he’d have any trouble in England and England won’t be able to find a bowling attack much better than South Africa’s.” — Sapa-AFP